He knows
by Supernerdette
Summary: Artemis is unsure of herself after the mission with The fog, and a certain birdie convinces her it wasn't her fault; you don't get to choose who you're related to.


**He knows.**

**Yeah, I wanted to do a 1-shot on something random. So, this is when Robin confronts Artemis about letting Cheshire escape. Can be seen as Traught pairing if you want, but t's written as just friendship. **

Artemis had never felt so frustrated in her life. The team, (read: Wally) were all angry at her for letting Cheshire escape from outside the Internet Café, even if they didn't show it. She knew in the way that Conner passed her the remote without speaking, in the way Kaldur wouldn't meet her eyes, and the way a certain speedster kept nagging at her. Even M'gann would give her extra-small cookies, and the only one not in on the act seemed to be Robin. Even Black Canary was acting unfriendly, and Artemis was sick of it. So she did what she usually did to calm down and de-stress; training vigorously nonstop.

She grabs her bow from the floor of her bedroom at the mountain, and heads on down to the training room. Once there, she grabs several paper targets and pins them up in random places around the room, and begins to shoot.

Bull's-eye- she imagines Conner's angry glances at her and shoots again.

_Thwack _– M'gann giving her smaller portions of everything

_Plunk-_ Aqualad not meeting her eyes

Her anger peaking, she aimed once more, drawing back her compound bow fully. She released the string, and her arrow shot towards the target, splitting her _previous_ bulls-eye straight down the middle. Wally's continuous nagging. Really, why couldn't they all just give it a rest? She's sure _they_ made mistakes before, so what's the big deal about hers?

A sudden noise makes her jump. It's a whoosh-ing noise, like wind ruffling past hair. She looks around for a while, and then sees the source of it. Robin is on the uneven bars in the corner, swinging round and round, flipping between the higher and lower bars. And just _watching_ him makes her feel relaxed, taking comfort in his graceful movements and seemingly nonchalant expression.

Then he stops suddenly, and hoists himself up to sit perched on the top bar. He turns to her and just nods.

"What's up?" He asks, and Artemis curses the fact that he's the world's _second greatest_ detective. Of course he could tell something was up. And her frown seems to give him the answer he needs.

"The others are giving you a hard time." It's not a question, but a statement. She nods and keeps shooting.

"About Jade." Her arrow goes wide of the target, almost hitting the Boy Wonder himself. He just swings downwards to avoid being hit, then flips back upright again. She's nervous, and she wonders if he's come here to kick her off the team.

"How-how do you know? Do the othe-" And she's panicking now, because they can't know, they _can't know _or they'll kick her off the team for sure.

"No. It's just me." His reply reassures her, but she still has one question left unanswered. "I knew from the start," he says, "But it never mattered; we know you're loyal to _this_ team now." She breathes a shaky sigh of relief, glad he's the only one that knows.

"And I guess that's why you let her go."

"I didn't-"

"Yes, you did. You were afraid we'd find out, you were afraid we'd abandon you." She doesn't deny it because she knows it's true. And suddenly all her resolve dissolves, and she's no longer Artemis, the confident, sarcastic archer-hero, she's Artemis Crock, the nervous, vulnerable daughter of Sportsmaster and Huntress.

"It's okay." He says, and she holds back a sob. "The team might not fully trust you yet, but we're not going to throw you out just because of who you're related to. You can't choose your family."

She laughs weakly and starts speaking again. "But the Team, well, think I screwed up."

"I'll speak to the others; it'll just be a 'first mission mistake'."

She sniffles and laughs. "I bet they won't believe _that _one."

"You never know," He replies, "On our first, ah, _non-official_ mission, Wally ran ahead and almost got crushed by a bunch of G-trolls. Conner, well, Superboy went around destroying pretty much everything, he knocked us all out and badly bruised my ribs."

"What about… _you?_" She asks, and Robin tenses slightly, before chuckling.

"Well, on the first mission, _I_ was actually the leader." She looks at him like _what_, and he laughs and continues.

"I had the most experience. But I was experienced working with Batman, and we kinda understand each other more. The long and short of it is, I messed up and expected them to follow my lead, and Kal got voted leader until I'm older."

Wow. She's completely in awe of him now, and it's got a lot to do with how calmly he talks about everyone's mistakes.

"You never told me about that first mission." She says, and he grins as he starts to spin the tale of how the team begun. By the end of it, they're both in fits of giggles and all worries are forgotten. As she walks away from the training room, Robin calls her back.

"You're going to have to tell them at some point, you know." And she does know, but she doesn't want to admit it. She just nods and keeps walking.

He knows.


End file.
